My daughter had a dance concert at the weekend, and since my wife and in-laws were sick, she disappointedly was only accompanied by me - who was also in charge of getting her ready for the show, including making sure she had the right outfit. One thing I can do well,
Is shop for women.
I find it strange that many men don't seem to know their partner's sizes and would have no idea what size to get if buying a lingerie set for their wife or girlfriend. Shouldn't this be a "bare minimum" amount of attention paid? Most of my female friends (most of my friends are women) have often commented when we have been put browsing and I am looking at things for my wife, that their partners have occasionally tried to buy them some item of clothing - and they haven't come close. It also seems that men underestimate the size usually, which means that what they get is awkwardly too small. That is just coming from my friends though - perhaps it is because they are mostly dating Finnish men and they can't even buy clothes that fit themselves well.
When I shop for my wife, I usually buy what I think she will look good in, not what she usually wears. It is not that she doesn't look good in what she wears, but I think that all of us get "stuck" into a kind of style that might not be the best for us, but we feel comfortable in it. Clothing is a low-bar area to experiment a bit, and get accustomed to being a little uncomfortable and trying new things. I also will buy her things she is comfortable in too but try to,
Mix it up a bit.
I don't care about fashion.
There is a big difference between being fashionable, and being stylish and I think that when young, a lot of people end up confusing the two. They wear what is in fashion, even if it doesn't fit their body or personality, likely to feel more part of the group. However, as we age, we not only change body type, we also change "who we are" in so many ways, as while we are always "us", we can be quite different to the person we were earlier.
I am more casual now than I was before.
At least most of the time. However, I like to dress up a bit occasionally also, but I don't feel I have any nice clothes to wear. Nothing really "fits" me anymore and especially since the stroke, my body isn't comfortable in anything, or anywhere - I feel awkward in my own skin. I am no longer stylish.
The flow is gone.
At another time in history, I wonder how people "felt" about themselves and I wonder whether they were better off than us, because they hadn't been conditioned to emphasise their feelings and look inward constantly. Instead, they could just focus on survival, their next meal, their family - and while life might have been hard and painful, I wonder if they reflected upon it, and stressed themselves about how they feel. I suspect there was far more focus put on,
What they did.
We bought a flower on the way to the show for Smallsteps to give to the dance teacher, to go along with the card she had made to say thank you for the season. In the florist, Smallsteps chose which kind of flower she wanted and what colour and then I took two and asked to have them wrapped separately. Smallsteps said, "we only need one for the teacher" and I replied, I think someone else deserves one also, and she realised it was for her.
She rarely blushes.
Taraz
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